Maureen K. Rowley, 57, public-interest lawyer

Maureen Kearney Rowley, 57, of West Mount Airy, a lawyer and former chief federal defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, died of breast cancer Monday, Oct. 17, at home.

While attending Temple University Law School, Ms. Rowley volunteered to assist in tenant-landlord disputes and with domestic violence and criminal cases.

By the time she graduated in 1980, she told Temple Esq. magazine, she had "found her niche" in public interest law. Her first job out of law school was as an attorney for Women Against Abuse.

In 1981, she joined the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which provides legal representation for indigent clients. Two years later, she joined the association's federal division.

In 1989, she became chief federal defender.

Over the years, Ms. Rowley told Temple Esq., mandatory minimum sentencing laws and the number of prosecutions for drugs and firearms violations increased the federal defender's workload. The number of death-penalty cases in Pennsylvania also increased, resulting in more federal habeas corpus petitions seeking review of constitutional issues.

Ms. Rowley and her staff were involved in several high-profile cases, including representing Ronald Rompilla before the Supreme Court in 2005.

The high court overturned a death sentence for Rompilla, saying his court-appointed trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that could have persuaded a jury to spare his life.

In 2003, Ms. Rowley's office handled the appeal for Nicholas Yarris, who had been on death row in Pennsylvania for 22 years, charged in rape and murder.

Yarris had been urging examination of the DNA evidence since the mid-1980s, but it was not until the federal defender's office took his case to U.S. District Court that a DNA test finally returned conclusive results, and Yarris was released.

While chief federal defender, Ms. Rowley also was an adjunct professor at Temple and Penn Law Schools.

In 1996, she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. After the cancer recurred in 2005, she battled the disease while working until retiring in December 2008. Since then, she had been a consultant for the federal defender's office in Delaware.

"Maureen's passion, vision, and dedication to justice for all was always a big part of her, and it never wavered even when confronted with illness. She remained an inspiration and a motivator to all of us," said Leigh Skipper, Ms. Rowley's colleague for 20 years, who succeeded her as chief federal defender.

A 1971 graduate of St. Hubert's High School in Northeast Philadelphia, Ms. Rowley earned a bachelor's degree from what is now La Salle University in 1975. When she interviewed for a paralegal position and found out she would be making coffee and keeping the lawyer's calendar, she told Temple Esq., she decided to go to law school.

At Temple, she met her life partner, Patricia A. McInerney, a judge in Common Pleas Court. McInerney said Ms. Rowley was a mentor and an adviser to young lawyers in her office and to their daughters' friends.

In 2005, Ms. Rowley received a Barrack '68 Alumni Achievement Award at the Temple Law Alumni Association's 90th anniversary celebration.

She enjoyed hosting backyard parties and vacationing with her family on Cape Cod, in Stone Harbor, N.J., and in Waterville Valley, N.H.

In addition to her partner of 32 years, Ms. Rowley is survived by daughters Kate and Maura; two brothers; and a sister.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at Abington Friends Meeting House, 520 Meetinghouse Rd., Jenkintown. Friends may call from noon.

Donations may be made to the Temple University Beasley School of Law, 1719 N. Broad St., Philadelphia 19122.